The Gift of Slothfulness

Last year I gifted myself a few days of sloth for the holidays. No projects, no deadlines, and few obligations. For someone who usually runs at full throttle, the downtime was amazing. I read books, watched movies, and enjoyed a much slower pace. After a few days my sloth account was full and I jumped back into the new year recharged.

This year I knew it was coming and spent days eagerly planning to be slothful. (How ironic is that?) I prepped myself with a stack of books, a pile of movies, and a knitting project or two. This year I couldn’t fit in days of complete slothfulness due to obligations and deadlines. I did manage a couple of weeks of semi-slothfulness, though.

So here’s what Sloth 2015 looked like:

Read:

“Waistcoats and Weaponry“(Finishing School book 3) by Gail Carriger – I’ve been tearing through this series as quickly as I can get my hands on it.

“George’s Secret Key to the Universe” by Lucy and Stephen Hawking – Yes, that Stephen Hawking. Turns out his daughter writes novels. This is a rare gem – a kid’s book that doesn’t sacrifice good storytelling for good science.

“Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep?” by Timothy Verstynen and Bradley Voytek – What happens in the brain to turn a person into a zombie? Find out along with this accessible read. (TL;DR: check out the TedEX talk for part of the answer.)

“Voyager” (Outlander book 3) by Diana Gabaldon – This epic series is addictive. Do not attempt unless you have the next 48 hours cleared. No really. (I’ve been working on the series for a couple of years for just this reason.)

Videos:

Star Wars – We began introducing our kids to the Star Wars movies. It’s important to start your nerdlings on the proper path from a young age.

Crash course Astronomy – Yes, the whole series. (Ok, I skipped over a few early ones.) This is big science explained in layman’s terms.